affirms that he was burned alive in a temple; others state that he was slain in attempting to make his escape. It can hardly be doubted that his death was violent, notwithstanding the divine honours paid to him afterwards, and that, with all that he did to deceive mankind, or rather perhaps to preserve himself, he fell at last a martyr to his generous efforts to undeceive them. The strongest type of resemblance or coincidence with the apostolic story, which the history of the Samian sage presents is, that the Egyptian Therapeuts boasted of his name as a member of their monastic institution; and that Pythagoras certainly made his disciples live in common, and that they renounced their property in their patrimony, and that " as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made to every man according as he had need."-Acts iv. 35. An ill construction was put upon their union, and it proved very fatal to them. That society of students being looked upon as a faction which conspired against the state, sixty of them were destroyed, and the rest ran away. "Three hundred young men," says Justin, "formed into a society by a kind of oath, lived together by themselves, and were looked upon as a private faction by the state, who intended to burn them as they were assembled in one house. Almost sixty of them perished in the tumult, and the rest went into banishment." This event, however, appears not to have occurred till some time after the death of their divine master. Let the reader compare these historical facts with the story of the Holy Ghost descending in the shape of fire upon the heads of the apostles, when they were all with one accord in one place, and their subsequent dispersion, as detailed in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, so grossly fabulous, and so monstrously absurd, that there is not in the present day a Christian minister, who dare bring the subject before the contemplation of his hearers; and then let him give to Christianity the benefit of all the doubt he shall entertain that these facts are not the basis of that fiction. See his Creed, and Golden Verses, in our chapter SPECIMENS OF PAGAN PIETY. So conscious are the Christian Fathers of the superiority of Pythagoras in every respect, that they endeavour to show that he was a Jew ;* that he had been an imme * Imo fuere qui Nazaratum Pythagoræ præceptorem idem hic est cum Zabrato, ipsum esse Ezechelem prophetam tradiderunt. Ex populo Judæorum genus diate disciple of the Jewish prophet Ezekiel; that be, as well as Pherecydes, Thales, Solon, and Plato, had learned the doctrine of the true God, not only among the Egyptians, but from the Hebrews themselves. In the account which the emperor Constantine gives of the matter, in his oration to the holy congregation of the clergy, Pythagoras, to be sure, is an impostor, inasmuch as that "those things which the prophets had foretold, he delivered to the Italians as if God had particularly revealed them to him.”* Lactantius, however, admits, and expresses his wonder, that when Pythagoras, and afterwards Plato, incited by the love of seeking truth, had travelled as far as to the Egyptians, the Magi, and the Persians, to learn the rites and ceremonies of those nations, they should never have consulted the Jews, with whom alone the true wisdom was to be found, and to whom they might have gone more readily." The Jews ! !—Paugh! "Of the vast variety of religions which have prevailed at different times in the world, perhaps there was no one that has been more general than that of the Metempsychosis. It continued to be believed by the early Christian Fathers, and by several sects of Christians. "As much as this doctrine is now scouted, it was held not only by almost all the great men of antiquity, but a late very ingenious writer, philosopher, and Christian apologist, avowed his belief in it, and published a defence of it; namely, the late Soame Jenyns."-Higgins' Celtic Druids, pp. 283, 284. It is not, indeed, rational; but what metaphysical speculation of any sort is so? Had it been more frightful, it would have been more orthodox. CHAPTER XXXIV. ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON'S CONFESSION OF THE IDENTITY OF CHRISTIANITY AND PAGANISM.‡ As it is really too much to be believed, and we wish to draw on no man's confidence who may have the means of cerduxisse Pythagoram, plerosque arbitrare scribit Ambrosius.-Kortholli Pagan. Obtrect. p. 48. Φασι δε ούτως εν αιγυπτώ 8 μονον παρ' αιγυπτων, αλλα και παρ Εβραίων, τα περι τε οντως διδαχθηναι θε8.-Theodoritus Therapeut. lib. 3. *Constantine's Oration, c. 9. + 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. For the "Life of Archbishop Tillotson,' see Wadsworth's Ecclesiastical tifying himself, that the highest dignitary of the church of England, the brightest ornament it ever had, and the honestest man that ever received honour from it, or reflected honour on it, should so have given tongue, so have confessed the whole cheat, betrayed his craft, and yielded every thing that philosophy could aim to conquer; I give the litera scripta," the "ipsissima verba," the written letter, the very words themselves, which will be found in the forty-sixth of the "fifty-four sermons and discourses which were published by his Grace himself;" this being the second of the two entitled "Concerning the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour;" on the text (John i. 14), "The Word was made flesh;" and preached in the church of St. Lawrence Jewry, Dec. 28, 1680 ;* occurring in the fourth volume, 8vo, of Woodhouse's edition, A. D. 1744; and of that volume, p. 143. It is remarkable, that, even so long ago, mankind were not quite so stupid as not to scent out the latitant waggery of these discourses, which would have gone nigh to have cost an ecclesiastic of humbler rank his ears in the pillory, or at least a year or two in Oakham Jail. The mitred infidel, however, in an advertisement to the reader, informs us, that "the true reason of publishing these discourses, was not the importunity of friends, but the importunate clamours and malicious calumnies of others, whom he heartily prays God to forgive, and give them better minds.' "" Amen. Some Account of the Christian Dispensation. "The third and last thing which I proposed upon this argument of the Incarnation of the Son of God, was to give some account of this dispensation, and to show that the wisdom of God thought fit thus to order things, in great condescension to the weakness and common prejudices of mankind.+ “And it is the more necessary to give some account of this matter, because after all that hath hitherto been said. 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. * 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. †The reader will observe, that the hyphen, thus, -, is inserted, to indicate that the sentence is relieved of its prolixity: not a syllable is added, nor one omitted, that in the least degree could qualify the sense. * in answer to the objections against it, it may still seem very strange to a considering man,t that God, who could without all this circumstance and condescension have done the business, should yet have made choice of this way," &c. But since God hath been pleased to pitch upon this way rather than any other, this surely ought to be reason enough, whether the particular reasons of it appear to us or not."-p. 144. "Secondly, I consider, in the next place, that in several revelations which God hath made of himself to mankind, he hath, with great condescension, accommodated himself to the condition and capacity, and other circumstances, of the persons and people to whom they were made. For the religion and laws which God gave them (i. e. the Jewish nation) were far from being the best (indeed!). God gave them statutes which were not good, that is, very imperfect in comparison of what he could and would have given them had they been capable of them.||-p. 145. "Thirdly, I observe yet further, that though the Christian religion, as to the main and substance of it, be a most perfect institution, yet, upon a due consideration of things, it cannot be denied, that the manner and circumstances of this dispensation are full of condescension to the weakness of mankind, and very much accommodated to the most common and deeply radicated prejudices of men. "But in history and fact, this is certain, that some notions, and those very gross and erroneous, did almost universally prevail; and though some of these were much more tolerable than others, yet God seems to have had great consideration of some very weak and gross appre hensions of mankind concerning religion. And as in some of the laws given by Moses, God was pleased particularly to consider the hardness of the hearts of that people; so he seems likewise to have very much suited the dispensation of the Gospel, and the method of our salvation, by * Which is, being interpreted-All that has been said in answer to the objections, has been very jejune and unsatisfactory. † Which is, being interpreted-It is considering men who are the infidels. Which is, being interpreted-Much ado about nothing. Which is, being interpreted, "Shut your eyes, and open your mouth, and see what God will send you.' This might have been fair play, provided God himself was not able to enlarge or improve their capacity. 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. the incarnation and sufferings of his Son, to the common prejudices of mankind, especially of the heathen world, whose minds were less prepared for this dispensation than the Jews.* "That God hath done this in the dispensation of the Gospel, will, I think, very plainly appear in the following instances. p. 147. "1st, The world was much given to admire mysteries,† most of which were either very odd and fantastical, or very lewd and impure, or very inhuman and cruel. But the great mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God, was such a mystery as did obscure and swallow up all other mysteries. Since the world had such an admiration for mysteries, that was a mystery indeed-a mystery beyond all dispute, and beyond all comparison.‡―p. 48. "2dly, There was likewise a great inclination in mankind to the worship of a visible Deity, (so) God was pleased to appear in our nature, that they who were so fond of a visible Deity might have one, even a true and natural image of God the Father, the express image of his person.§ "3dly, Another notion which has generally obtained among mankind, was concerning the expiation of the sins of men, and appeasing the offended Deity by sacrificeupon which they supposed the punishment due to the sinner was transferred to exempt him from it, especially by the sacrifices of men.||-p. 148. And with this general * Good God! could a bishop in stronger significancy discover his heartfelt hatred of Christianty. He held Christians to be more hard-hearted than the Jews themselves, and so God suited his religion to their hard-heartedness. + Compare with the chapter Eleusinian Mysteries, and with Admissions of Christian Writers, p. 52, No. 51, in this DIEGESIS. 40 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 ?"` This was the Spaniard Cortes's way of converting the Mexicans, when he threw 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 seems to stand fixed, set up the Cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, and worship that."-Dejicite 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. That is, God was pleased to approve and sanction human sacrifices. And what was the difference between this God and Moloch? His Grace, howevor |