The Secret Vault presents: The Christian and Pagan Creeds Collated. Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
[For the " Life of Archbishop Tillotson," see Wads worth's, Ecclesiastical.]
By the Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
[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 a more honest man than any of them; and, God knows, that's no compliment.] [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.]
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 certifying himself, that the highest dignitary of the church of England, the brightest ornament it ever had, and the most honest 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 everything 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 1-14), "The Word was made flesh;" and preached in the church of St. Lawrence Jewry, Dec. 28, 1680; [a] occurring in the fourth volume, 8vo, of Woodhous's edition, 1744AD; and of that volume, p. 143. It is remarkable, that, even so long ago, mankind was 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. [note. [a] 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.]
"And it is the more necessary to give some account of this matter, because after all that has hitherto been said in answer to the objections against it, [Which is. being interpreted - All that has been said in answer to the objections, has been very jejune and unsatisfactory.] it may still seem very strange to a considering man, [Which is, being interpreted - It is considering men who are the infidels.] that God, who could without all this circumstance and condescension have done the business [Which Is, being interpreted - Much ado about nothing.] should yet have made choice of this way," &c.
"But since God has 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." [Which is, being interpreted, "Shut your eyes, and open your mouth, and see what God will send you."] - 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. [This might have been fair play, provided God himself was not able to enlarge or improve their capacity.] - 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 radical prejudices of men. [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.]
"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 apprehensions 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 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.[ Good God! could a bishop in stronger significance, discover his heartfelt hatred of Christianity. He held Christians to be more hard-hearted than the Jews themselves, and so God suited his religion to their hard-heartedness.]
"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, [b] Compare with the chapter Eleusinian Mysteries, and with Admissions of Christian Writers, p. 52, No. 51, in this Diegesis.] 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.
[c] O 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?"] - p. 48.
secondly. 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. [d] 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, and 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. Fabrich Cod. Apocryp. tom. 2, in hac re.]
3rdly, Another, notion which has generally obtained among mankind, was concerning the expiation, of the sins of men, and appeasing the offended Deity by sacrifice - upon 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 notion of mankind, God was pleased so far to comply, as once for all to have a general atonement made for the sins of all mankind, by the sacrifice of his only Son, whom his wise providence did permit by wicked hands to be crucified and slain.
[e] That is, God was pleased to approve and sanction human sacrifices. And what was the difference between this God and Moloch? His Grace, however has the most explicit texts of the New Testament on his side, (and no rational man will ever have a word to say against the Old Testament): "For if the blood, of bulls and goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ," &c? Heb. 9-13. - The force of the whole argument is, - the more monstrously horrible, the more cruel, barbarous, and bloody, the more sanctifying efficacy in the sacrifice, and the more acceptable to this horrid God.]
4thly, Another, very common notion, and very rife in the heathen world, and a great source of their idolatry, was their apotheosis, or canonizing of famous and eminent persons, by advancing them after their death to the dignity of an inferior kind of gods, fit to be worshipped by men here on earth, &c. Now, to take men off from this kind of idolatry, and to put an end to it, behold! one in our nature exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high, to be worshipped by men and angles; one that was dead and is alive again, and lives for evermore to make intercession for us. [ Perhaps this is the severest irony, the most caustic sarcasm; that was ever couched in words. It is the "Show 'em in here," and "Jill alive O!" of Bartholomew Fair. It is - "Our tricks beat theirs!" It is - "The fools! the idiots! nothing can be too gross for them"]
5th ly, the world was mightily bent upon addressing their requests and supplications, not to the Deity immediately, but by some mediators between the gods and them. In a gracious compliance with this common apprehension, God was pleased to constitute and appoint One in our nature to be a perpetual advocate and intercessor in heaven for us, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; [g] This is good, honest, downright materialism. "Bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh," must involve our ways of making and sustaining bone and flesh. Here is no skiey and cloudy work, and no room to rail at Mahomet's terrestrial paradise.] so very nearly allied and related to us, (that) we may easily believe that he has a most tender care and concernment for us, if we ourselves, by our own wilful obstinacy, do not hinder it; for if we be resolved to continue impenitent, there is no help for us; we must die in our sins, and salvation itself cannot save us." (p. 152) - Thus far his Grace of Canterbury. The reader is requested to compare this language throughout, with the avowals of Mosheim, the apologies of Minucius Felix, Justin Martyr and Tertullian - with the concessions of Gregory of Cassarea, Origen, and Melito, in their places in this Diegesis - and with the total absence of any historical recognition of the existence of Christianity, as distinct from Paganism, within the first hundred years, or as distinct from a sectarian excrescence grown upon Paganism, within the first thousand years; and let him be faithful to his own convictions.
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next Chapter 35. Resemblance of Pagan and Christian Forms of worship