The Secret Vault presents: The Christian and Pagan Creeds Collated. Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
By the Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
Aesculapius
Mr. Addison's versification of the prophecies
which foretold the life and actions of Aesculapius?
from the Metamorphoses of Ovid. Mr. Pope's versification of the prophecies which
foretold the life and actions of Jesus Christ,
from the prophecies of Isaiah.
once, as the sacred infant she surveyed, the god
was kindled in the raving maid; And thus, she
uttered her prophetic tale,
" Hail, great physician of the world! all hail.
Hail mighty infant, who in years to come,
Shalt heal the nations and defraud the tomb!
Swift be thy growth, thy triumphs unconfined,
make kingdoms thicker and increase mankind.
Thy daring art shall animate the dead and
draw the thunder on thy guilty head;
Then shalt thou die, but from the dark abode
shalt rise victorious and be twice a god. Ye nymphs of Solyma begin the song!
O thou my voice inspire, that touched Isaiah's
hallowed lips with fire. Rapt into future times
the bard began-
A virgin shall conceive, a virgin will bear a son.
Swift fly the years and rise the expected morn -
O spring to light, auspicious babe be born.
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,
and on the sightless eyeball pour the day:
'Tis he, the obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
And bid new music charm the unfolding ear;
the dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego
and leap exulting like the bounding roe.
Latin, original. Ovid Met. Lib. 2, line 640.
Ergo ubi fatidicos concepit mente furores Incaluitque Deo, quem clausum pectore habebat aspicit infantem. Totique salutifer orbi cresce puer dixit, tibi se mortalia saepe corpora dehebunt: animas tibi reddere ademptas fas erit. Idque semel Dis lndignantibus ausus posse dare hoc iterum flamma promhibebere avita eque Deo corpus fies exangue; deusque qui modo corpus eras, et bis tua fata novabis.
"And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age and had lived with a husband seven-years from her virginity. And she was a widow about four-score and after four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fasting's and prayers night and day. And she coming in at that instant, gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spoke of him to all them that looked for redemption in Israel, Luke 2-36."
This is one of the many passages which the Unitarian editors of the improved version wish to have rejected, assigning as one among their several reasons against it, though found in all manuscripts and versions now extant, it was introduced with a view to elevate the crucified Jesus to the dignity of the heroes and demigods of the heathen mythology." - p. 121.
Reason at once rejects all ideas of prophecy, as being the most childish and foolish conceit that could possibly cross the mind; a knowledge of future events being no than to fly in the air to the body. We may be told sometimes of an extraordinary guess as we may of a wonderful jump flight nor prophecy are attributes of man and no rational man will consider the pretence to such a faculty, in any other light than certain evidence of imposture by whomsoever or in what cause so ever, advanced. [a]
Future discovery of America
[a] 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 saecula 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."]
Aesculapius.
The worship of Aesculapius was first established in Egypt, the fruitful parent of all varieties of superstition. The name is derived from the Oriental languages. Eusebius speaks of an Asclepios, or Aesculapius, an Egyptian, and a famous physician. He is well known as the God of the art of healing, and his Egyptian or Phoenician origin, leads us irresistibly to associate his name and character with that of the ancient Therapeuts, or Society of Healers, established in the vicinity of Alexandria, whose sacred writings Eusebius has ventured to acknowledge, were the first types of our four gospels. The miracles of healing and of raising the dead, recorded in those scriptures, are exactly such as these superstitious quacks would be likely to ascribe to the founder of their fraternity.
"Being honoured as a god in Phoenicia and Egypt, his worship passed into Greece, and was established first at Epidaurus, a city of Peloponnesus, bordering on the sea; where probably some colonies first settled: a circumstance sufficient to induce the Greeks to give out that this god was a native of Greece." - Bell's Pantheon, p. 27.
Among the Greeks, it was believed that the god Apollo himself had represented Aesculapius as his son by a voice from the oracle (Ibid.): and it is a striking coincidence of fact, if it be no more than a coincidence, that we find the Christian Father, Eusebius, attempting to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ, from an answer given by the same oracle; [a] while the text of the Gospel of St. Matthew 3-17, written certainly much later than those answers, runs, "ho, a voice from heaven, saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." By the mother side, Aesculapius was the son of Coronis, who had received the embraces of God, but for whom, unfortunately, the worshippers of her son have forgotten to claim the honour of perpetual virginity. To conceal her pregnancy from her parents, she went to Epidaurus, and was there delivered of a son, whom she exposed upon the Mount of Myrtles [b]; when Aristhenes, [c] the goatherd, [d] in search of a goat and a dog missing from his fold, discovered the child, whom he would have carried to his home, had he not, in approaching to lift him up, perceived his head encircled with fiery rays,[e] which made him to believe the child to be divine. The voice of fame soon published the birth of a miraculous infant; upon which the people flocked from all quarters to behold this heaven-born child. [f]
[a] Dem. Evan, quoted, translated and commented on, in the author's Syntagma, p. 116.
[b] Mount of Myrtles - why not Mount of Olives?
[c] Aristhenes - why not Joseph?
[d] Goatherd - why not Shepherd?
[e] Thus all Christian painters have depicted the infant Jesus. '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!
[f] Heaven-born child. -- Equally applicable to Aesculapius as to Jesus is the divine doggerel annexed,]
Aesculapius.
It was believed that "Aesculapius was so expert in medicine, as not only to cure the sick, but even to raise the dead." Ovid says he did this by Hyppolitus (and Julius says the same of Tyndarus); that Pluto cited him before the tribunal of Jupiter, and complained that his empire was considerably diminished, and in danger of becoming desolate, from the cures performed by Aesculapius; so that Jupiter, in wrath, slew him with a thunderbolt. Within a short time after his death, he was deified, and received divine honours. His worship was first established at Epidaurus, and soon after propagated throughout all Greece. The cock [g] and serpent, were especially consecrated to him, and his divinity was recognized and honoured in the last words of the dying Socrates, "Remember that we owe a cock to Aesculapius." At a time when the Romans were infested with the plague, having consulted their sacred books, they learned that, in order to be delivered from it, they were to go in quest of Aesculapius at Epidaurus; accordingly, an embassy was appointed of ten senators, at the head of whom was Qaintus Ogulnius; and the worship of Aesculapius was established at Rome 288years before Christ. But the most remarkable coincidence is, that the worship of this god continued with scarcely diminished splendour, even for several hundred years after the establishment of Christianity. We have the best and most rationally attested account of a cure brought about by the influence of imagination in connection with his name, as late as the year 485 AD.
[g] 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.]
Marinus, a scholar of the philosopher Proclus, AD. 485, in his life of his master, says, "I might relate very many theurgic operations of this blessed man: one, out of innumerable, I shall mention; and it is wonderful to hear. - Asclipigenia, daughter of Archiades and Plutarcha, and wife of Theagenes, to whom we are much indebted, when she was yet but a young maiden, and lived with her parents, was seized with a grievous distemper, incurable by the physicians. All help from the physicians failing, as in other cases, so now in this also; her father applied to the sheet-anchor, that is, to the philosopher, as his good Saviour, [h] earnestly entreating him to pray for his daughter, whose condition was not unknown to him. He therefore, taking with him Pericles of Lydia, who was also a philosopher and worthy of that name, [i] went to the temple of Aesculapius, intending to pray for the sick young woman to the god; for the city (Athens) was at that time blessed in him, and still enjoyed the undemolished temple of The Saviour. But while he was praying according to the ancient form, [j] a sudden change appeared in the damsel, and she immediately became convalescent; for The Saviour, as being God, easily healed her."
[h] The good Saviour, which was the express title of Aesculapius, is given by Eusebius, in the mouth of his fabricated personage, Abgarus, to the no less fabricated Jesus: - [GK ] Lib. 1. c. 13, lit. D. Eccl. Hist. "Abgarus, toparch of Edessa, to Jesus, the good Saviour, who hath shone forth in Jerusalem - greeting!]
[i] Lardner, vol. 4, p. 140.]
[j] The ancient form, forsitan; " 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.]
Aesculapius
With respect to the miracles ascribed to Aesculapius, and continuing to be performed for so many ages by the efficacy of faith in his name, and in answer to prayers offered up in his temple; the power and influence of imagination, in producing changes in the animal economy to an indefinite extent, is well known to physicians; and, without intending any injurious imposture, the most benevolent and intelligent medical men at this day avail themselves of the patient's superstition, to aid and second the operations of medicine. A strongly excited expectation of relief will often produce such an improved tone of muscular action, and such a more vigorous flow of the animal spirits, as will be sufficient to throw off the obstructions in which the disease originated, and thus effect many extraordinary and otherwise unaccountable cures. A medical friend once succeeded in curing a poor man of chronic rheumatism, after he had followed the prescriptions of the ablest physicians without receiving the least benefit, by working upon his imagination to make sure of receiving a cure by taking seven teaspoonfuls of the decoction of a brickbat that should be found in a churchyard, the brickbat to be boiled for seven hours, in seven quarts of water; the essential conditions of the miracle being that its efficacy was not to be doubted; and the whole process to be kept an inviolable secret. This prescription he affected to translate out of the spider-leg text of a Greek folio. The cure was perfect. The primitive Christians were content never to call in question the miracles pretended by their Pagan adversaries, so they could get their own similar pretensions recognised. Their argument was one that was well contrived to evade all possibility of being determined: the, Pagan miracles were wrought by the power of demons, while theirs were to be ascribed to the True God.
Aesculapius.
Justin Martyr, in his Apology for the Christian Religion, addressed to the emperor Hadrian, seems to seek rather an excuse for the Christian miracles, than to consider them as resting on any grounds of evidence: - "As to our Jesus curing the lame, and the paralytic, and such as were cripples from their birth, this is little more than what you say of your Aesculapius." [See the Chapter on Justin Martyr, in this Diegesis.]
"In the performance of their miracles," says Dr Convers Middleton, "the primitive Christians were always charged with fraud and imposture by their adversaries. Lucian tells us, that whenever any crafty juggler, expert in his trade, and who knew how to make a right use of things, went over to the Christians, he was sure to grow rich immediately, by making a prey of their simplicity; and Celsus represents all the Christian wonder-workers as mere vagabonds and common cheats, who rambled about to play their tricks at fairs and markets, not in the circles of the wiser and better sort, (for among such they never ventured to appear), but whenever they observed a set of raw young fellows, slaves or fools, there they took care to intrude themselves, and to display their arts."- [Free Inquiry, p. 144.]
The reader has only to consult the 1st and 2d chapters of the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians, and he will see that this principle of playing off upon the credulity of the weakest and most ignorant of mankind, is expressly avowed by the great Apostle of the Gentiles - "Christ crucified," to the Jews, "a stumbling block" as contrary to all evidence of fact; "and to the Greeks, foolishness," as revolting to reason. The principal result, however, of this resemblance is, the evidence it affords that the terms or epithets of "Our Saviour" - the Saviour being God, were the usual designations of the god Aesculapius; [k] and that miracles of healing, and resurrection from the dead, were the evidence of his divinity, for ages before similar pretences were advanced for Jesus of Nazareth. "Strabo informs us, that the temples of Aesculapius were constantly filled with the sick, imploring" the help of God; and that they had tables hanging around them, in which all the miraculous cures were described. There is a remarkable fragment of one of these tables still extant, and exhibited by Gruter in his collection, as it was found in the ruins of Aesculapius's temple, in the island of the Tiberina in Rome; which gives an account of two blind men restored to sight by Aesculapius, in the open view, and with the loud acclamations of the people acknowledging the manifest power of the god." - Middleton's Free Inquiry, p. 78. Could such a document be produced to authenticate any one of the miracles ascribed to Jesus, what would become of the cause of infidelity?
[k] 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 [ GK ], of Hercules the Saviour. -Bryant's Annot. vol. 2, p. 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: - "Touch not my Christs and do my fortune-tellers no harm." - Psalm cv. 14,]
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next Chapter 21. Hercules Jesus Christ.