The Secret Vault presents: The Christian and Pagan Creeds Collated. Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
Christian Religion.
By the Rev. Robert Taylor, A. B. & M. R. C. S.
[LN. Content. Epictetus. Plutarch, 140AD. Juvenal, 110AD. The Emperor Adrian, 134AD. The Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, The Philosopher, I8OAD. Lucius Apuleius, 164AD, Platonist philosopher and rhetorician, also called Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis, 124 to 170, especially remembered for his novel the Metamorphoses, better known to us as the Golden Ass. M. Valerius Martialis, [LN. M. Valerii Martialis] 110AD.
Epictetus, 111AD.
A slave, in body lame, as Irus poor,
Yet to the Gods was Epictetus dear. [a]
[a] This distich, in Greek verse, is generally attached to the portraits of this ornament of the human race.]
He is placed by Lardner about AD. 109, and, in his Enchiridion, or Manual of Moral Virtue, occurs the single allusion which may be supposed to be contained in the sentence here subjoined:
"So, it is possible that a man may arrive at this temper and become indifferent to these things from madness, or from habit, as the Galileans."!
In Dr Lardner's collection of the Evidences of the Christian Religion, this mode of expression is of sufficient consequence to be introduced with his remark, I should rather think that Christians are intended, p. 49.
Plutarch, 140AD.
In his dialogue de defectu Oraculorum, relates a strange story about a man being divinely admonished to cry out
"The great Pan is dead." Huet (and other equally learned and impartial Christian evidence hunters) suppose that hereby the death of Christ, who is the true pan, the parent of all things, and the author of all nature, was notified to heathen people.
Juvenal, 110AD.
The Roman satirical poet, in his first satire, has three lines, sufficient to supply a possible allusion to the sufferings of the primitive Christians, and a frightful vignette to the congenial taste of the admirers of the pocket edition of Paley's Evidences.
"Describe Tigellinus, and you shall suffer the same punishment with those who stand burning in their own flame, their head being held up by a stake fixed to their chin, till they make a long stream of blood and melted sulphur on the ground." - Paley's rendering. [PoneTigellinum, teda lucebis in ilia Qua stantes ardent, qui fixo gutture fumant Et latum media sulcuni deducis arena. - Juv. Sat. 1. v. 155.] [LN., Paley, William 1743 to 1805, Christian Apologist, philosopher and Utilitarian. Best known for his work 'Natural Theology or evidences of the existence and attributes of the Deity.']
The Emperor Adrian, 134AD
The letter of the Emperor Adrian to his brother-in-law Servianus, written in the year 134, and preserved in Flavins Vopicus, who flourished about 300AD.
"Egypt, [a] which you commended to me, my dearest Servianus, I have found to be wholly fickle and inconstant, and continually wafted about by every breath of fame. The worshippers of Serapis are Christians, and those are devoted to the God Serapis, who (I find) call themselves the bishops of Christ. There is here no ruler, of a Jewish synagogue, no Samaritan, no Presbyter of the Christians, who is not either an astrologer, a soothsayer, or a minister to obscene pleasures. The very Patriarch himself, should he come into Egypt, would be required by some to worship Serapis, and by others to worship Christ. They have, however, but one God, and it is one and the self-same whom Christians, Jews, and Gentiles alike adore, i.e. money."
[a] Adrianus Aug. Serviano Cos. S. "AEgyptum quam mihi laudabus Serviane carissime, totam didici levem, pendulam et ad omnia famse momenta voiitantem. Illi qui Serapim colunt, Christiani sunt: et devoti sunt Serapi, qui se Christi episcopos dicunt. Nemo illic Archisynagogus Judaeorum, nemo Samarites, nemo Christianorum presbyter, - non Mathematicus, non Aruspex, Aliptes. Ipse ille patriarcha quum in AEgyptum venerit ab aliis Serapidem adorare, ab aliis cogitur Christum Unus illis Deus est hunc Judaei, hunc omnes venerantur et gentes.]
Coincident with this unsophisticated testimony, is the never-refuted charge of Zozimus, that the Emperor Constantine learned the Christian religion from an Egyptian; and the fact admitted by Socrates, that the cross was found in the temple of Serapis, [See the Chapter on Constantine.] and claimed by his worshippers as the proper symbol of their religion.
The Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, The Philosopher, 18OAD.
In the eleventh of the twelve books of his meditations, speaks of a becoming fortitude of soul, as wholly of a siiperior character to that mere obstinacy, as of the
Christians. The single phrase [GK] "like the Christians," is the whole amount of this testimony. Nor is it certain whether by the name of Christians, he means the worshippers of Christ, or of Serapis. Below is the whole context.
M. Valerius Martialis, 110AD
Contemporary with Juvenal, has an epigram, the gist of which, is to ridicule the folly of giving the credit of rational fortitude to those fool-hardy wretches that rush on voluntary sufferings, and who would stand to be baked in ovens, or hold their limbs over red hot coals, for the purpose of exciting sympathy; and who, it is assumed, could be nobody else than the primitive Christians. [LN. note, this book is only viewable in Latin (25/03/2018)]
"In matutina nuper spectatus arena
Mucius, imposuit qui sua membra focis
Si patiens fortisque tibi durusque videtur
Abderitanae pectosa plebis habes;
Nam cum dicatur tunica praesente molesta
Ure manum: plus, est dicere non facio-."
(translation-)
As late you saw in early morning's show,
Mucius, the fool, on red ashes glow.
If brave and patient, thence, he seems to thee,
Thou art, methinks, as great a fool as he;
For there, in robe of pitch, the fire prepared,
The wretch would burn, because the people stared.
Lucius Apuleius, 164AD
Of Madaura, [LN. now M'Daourouch in Algeria.] wrote a fantastical book of metamorphoses, probably in principle somewhat similar to that of Ovid Our beaters up for evidences of the Christian religion have enlisted this work also; and in a ridiculous story in which a man who was metamorphosed into an ass, and in that incarnation, sold to a baker, - describes his mistress, the baker's wife, as a red hot virago, an adulterous, drunken thief, cheat, scold, and liar; but with all (as such characters generally are) peculiarly religious. [a] We are to imagine that we have some sort of evidence of the existence of Christianity. Dr Lardner concludes, "there can be no doubt that Apuleius here designs to represent a Christian woman." No doubt, no doubt! 'it is hard to tell, whether Christianity or the ladies owe him the profounder courtesy.
[a] Pistor ille qui, pessimam et ante cunctas mulieres longe deternmam sortitus conjugem, poenas extremas tori larisque sustinebat; scoeva soeva, vitiosa, ebriosa pervicax, pertinax, in rapinis turpibus avara, in sumptibus turpibus profusa, inimica fidei, hostis pudicitioe. Tunc spretis atque calcatis divinis numinibus in vicem certae religionis mentita sacrilega praesumptione Dei quem praedicaret unicum conflectis, observationibus vanis fallens omnes homines, et miserum maritum decipiens, matutino mero, et continuo stupro corpus Mancaparat Talis ilia mulier miro me persequebatur odio nam et ante lucano recubans adhuc subjungi machinae novitium clamabat asinum." - Ita citat Lardnerius, Tom. 4. p. 107.]
With all deference to the judgment of Dr Lardner, I venture to suggest, that this passage has not the remotest relation to that evidences for the Christian religion, which he wishes to bring forward. It bears a strong indication of the better and more honourable rank which the wife held in the domestic economy, under the ancient paganism, a fact which he and all other Christian advocates endeavour always to conceal. It indicates the prevalence of that better feeling towards the fair sex, which would have shuddered at the indelicacy of dragging virgin-modesty into the presence of a liquorish priest, to utter an enforced acknowledgment of sentiments, which, whether felt or not, were never meant by nature to be acknowledged, and to make vows and pledges of abject subjection and obedience until death, beyond all measure of obligation, in which any rational and intelligent being could be bound to one who may become false, and so deserve to be forsaken; may become tyrannous, and therefore deserve to be hated. This un-designed discovery of the domestic economy under pagan auspices, is strongly corroborated by the fact, that among the paintings found in the ruins of Herculaneum, is a chaste and beautiful figure of the matrimonial Venus, (Venus Pronuba) holding a sceptre of that dominion enjoyed by the wife in domestic affairs.
Hence as Festus under the article clavis, observes "the keys were consigned to the wife, as soon as she entered her husband's house. To this purpose may the custom of the Egyptians be observed, among whom, the wife ruled in the private concerns of her husband; and accordingly, in their marriage ceremonies, he promised to obey her." [Univ. Mag. 1778. p. 134.] Neither Christians nor Turks have ever been just to women.
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next Chapter 45. part 7. The Whole of the External Evidence of the Christian Religion.